Severance Pay and Severe Pain

For Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, director-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), these are not the nicest of times. He has just been suspended by Mrs Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, over allegations of impropriety. Gwarzo was accused, among other things, of paying himself a “severance package” of N104,854,154 as a former executive commissioner — shortly after being named DG of the same commission. The argument is that since he was still serving in the same organisation, it was wrong for him to have collected the benefit. “Severance package” is theoretically a one-off exit payment for political appointees.

In other news, Gwarzo does not think his suspension has anything to do with the petition over severance pay. Reports here and there attribute the suspension to Gwarzo’s insistence on conducting a forensic audit of Oando Plc over allegations of insider abuses and irregularities. The forensic audit would have led to the suspension of the Oando management and the appointment of an interim management. Adeosun reportedly asked Gwarzo to impose fines on individual members of the management rather than carry out the audit, for which SEC has already engaged the services of Akintola Williams Deloitte.

Gwarzo was said to have objected, leading to a reportedly heated argument with the minister who allegedly seized the moment to remind him of the petition against him “pending since January”. The SEC DG requested that her directive be put in writing — to which Adeosun was said to have pointed out that she herself takes verbal instructions from President Muhammadu Buhari. Gwarzo left her office and wrote her on November 28, 2017, summarising the discussions at the meeting and asking again that the request be put in an official letter. He got a letter, dated November 29, 2017, quite all right, but it was to suspend him from office over the allegations against him.

The sequence of events and the circumstances would fit perfectly into the narrative that Adeosun decided to dig up the petition because Gwarzo continued to insist on the forensic audit, but the office of the minister has strongly denied the allegations. Oando Plc, understandably, has refused to join issues and would prefer to be left out of the picture. The oil company actually secured a court order to stop the forensic audit which it considers to be a witch hunt. In the final analysis, we are only left to work with rumours and speculations on what really transpired between the minister and the DG. Suspicion is not terribly helpful in this matter. It is neither here nor there.

My bigger interest is in the allegations against Gwarzo — that he got a mouth-watering severance package and that he awarded contracts to a company, Madusa Investments Ltd, in which he has interest. While confirming that he collected the N104 million pay-off in 2015, he denied any wrong doing, citing a board decision way back in 2002 which authorised the payment to DGs and commissioners who had served for a minimum of two years. He also said Madusa is a family business from which he had resigned his directorship when he was appointed a SEC commissioner in 2013. He denied that the company has done any job for, or received any payment, from SEC.

Now that he is being investigated, I think the anti-graft agencies are in a better position to prove or disprove the allegations of impropriety against him. This may sound funny, but we can say that since the ICPC and EFCC are also going to carry out their own “forensic audit” of Gwarzo, it is only proper to ask him to step aside while this is being done so that an interim manager can also be in place. The trouble, though, is that this may further complicate things for Oando and Adeosun — if the forensic audit of Oando does not go ahead eventually, it may prove too difficult to convince Nigerians that there is no truth in Gwarzo’s allegation. Fingers crossed.

My curiosity in this matter, lest I forget, is the legality of the severance pay. If indeed the board of SEC approved as far back as July 2002 — 11 years before Gwarzo became a commissioner — that the benefit should be paid to the DG and “permanent commissioners”, the suspended DG would have no case to answer. The quantum of the pay wouldn’t matter as long as there is no infraction involved. The real issue would be: was it legal or not? Are there documentations to prove it or not? However, if there was no such board decision and Gwarzo collected the benefit illegally, then he would have to keep a date with the hangman.

If he truly followed the letter of the law in collecting the pay-off, there are still more questions to ask — and in asking these questions, we will discover more loopholes in the law or policy, as the case may be. Should he have collected the benefit while still in service even if occupying a different office? It would mean that, technically, he is entitled to another severance pay after his current tenure since the processes of appointing an executive commissioner and DG are different. What this shows us clearly is that there is a lacuna in the policy. Those who made the policy did not take care of a situation where a commissioner is promoted DG after two years.

Gwarzo can even pursue a hypothetical argument — that if he serves as an executive commissioner at SEC for two years, doesn’t collect the severance benefit, gets appointed as the DG of another agency and is removed after one year, then he would have lost out on the benefit completely. On the other hand, if he forgoes the hefty package (let’s say out of “patriotism”) and gets appointed as a minister, his severance pay would be probably N5 million. Therefore, there was a higher incentive for him to quickly claim his benefit as a former SEC commissioner. There is a huge dichotomy between the benefits of a minister and the heads of “specialised agencies” serving under them.

There are loopholes in the way severance pay is defined and structured. I’m sure many public officers have been benefitting from this at federal, state and local levels. While you cannot punish or prosecute someone for what is legally permissible, you can fine-tune the law or policy to address the loopholes. I am, therefore, looking beyond Gwarzo in my argument. I am canvassing a comprehensive and standardised policy on severance pay such that everything will be clear to all. I guess this is the job of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission and National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission. They should be the clearing houses for all such payments.

It gives me severe pains to know that there are some governors who, after getting a second term in office, pay themselves severance for their first term. That means they will collect a second severance pay after the second term, in addition to pension. I am also told that there are some legislators who get paid severance package at the end each term. So if they are re-elected five times, they get paid the benefit five times. I hope I am being misled — it is too bad to be true. We are also made to understand that some former governors who are now senators still collect pensions in addition to their hefty allowances in the national assembly. It may not be illegal but it is immoral.

To be clear, I have not declared Gwarzo culpable or not culpable. That is beyond my pay grade. Whether he is being punished over the Oando issue or over the petitions against him is beside the point. My worry, which I have managed to state clearly, is that we need to work on avoiding the lacuna in the severance benefits. This Gwarzo affair offers us an opportunity to streamline the payment of these benefits. I propose that an active public servant should be entitled to severance pay just once in a lifetime, preferably on final exit from government. That is more morally defensible, so let us standardise it — and legalise it.

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JOHNNY WAS A GOOD MAN
Having read Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi’s book, ‘On a Platter of Gold: How Jonathan Won and Lost Nigeria’, I confess that I have developed more sympathy for the former president. Yes, he was imperfect. He was indecisive, too soft and highly vulnerable. He did a million things wrong. But you could see a simple and listening leader who, in the midst of the chaos, never loved to hurt people or do illegal things, so much so he deferred to his attorney-general, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, on critical matters of law. My impression remains that Jonathan simply could not grow fast enough into the role of a president, and the company he kept did not help matters. Undoing.

BUDGET BLUES
Did you listen to Senate President Bukola Saraki’s insightful comments on the 2018 appropriation bill? “Sometimes I wonder if technocrats want to embarrass government and try to do some things knowing it can’t work,” he said. “Why would the budget be predicated on 2.3mbpd when the country was only able to record 1.9mbpd in 2017? In addition, even though in the past two months when oil price has been as high as $60, the report from FAAC is that they have not been able to put any money in the excess crude account. The only reason is that it must be that oil production is much less than what we are budgeting for.” I hope President Buhari is listening. Damning!

MOURNING AFTER
Was the Obama administration right to support the overthrow of Col. Muammar Ghaddafi as the Libyan leader? Many who said “yes” in 2011 must be saying “no” today. Libya has since dissolved into a mess since then, and Nigeria is facing the repercussions. It’s established that Boko Haram was strengthened by the arms flowing from the anarchy that ensued. The North African country now offers a booming route for human trafficking, illegal arms and illicit drug trade. It came to a head recently with the revelation that black Africans (Nigerians inclusive), illegally en route to Europe, are being sold off as slaves, tortured or killed in Libya. Grief.

ARGENTINA AGAIN!
Nigeria keeps getting Argentina as opponents at FIFA World Cup. We must be getting sick and tired of each other’s face by now. We’ve been drawn together at every World Cup we’ve played, save for France ’98, and they have always beaten us. But I love our sense of humour in Nigeria. I thoroughly enjoyed these tweets “Next time, they should just put Nigeria and Argentina together before drawing the groups” (@mrokike) and “Nigeria and Argentina should just marry!” (@ellytomall). With highly talented Croatia and giant-killing Iceland also in the mix, we should not make the mistake of thinking we are sure bets for the knock-out stages. Caution.

Since pmb has failed, Nigerians should expect the worse. Brace up yourselves people, mind and soul.

Grelia O

Simon just made a strong case for restructuring / devolution of power and responsibilities. Concentration of virtually everything official in federal hands makes ample room for manipulation, mismanagement, and corruption. Will a governing unit, state, zone or region that is not guaranteed free revenue on a monthly basis irrespective of any effort on its part to generate that revenue, be this lose with spending? Put it the other way, will such a unit be this reckless if it had to work hard even in difficult times to generate and manage it’s own revenue? Will it not require more accountability from it’s component parts?

There will be no end to these self-inflicted injuries to Nigerians and Nigeria because the injuries are made possible by our flawed structure and flawed constitution. You can’t pick and choose which loophole to plug, when the entire structure and the supreme law of the land, the Constitution, are a massive loophole. Fix those two and it becomes easier to tackle these consequences.

William Norris

Restructuring & devolution of powers?

That’s HATE SPEECH….better stop…..stop the HATE SPEECH !!!

LOL !!!

Grelia O

I hear you, WN, I hear you!

Country man

Dear Simon,

At the very least it should be clear by now that this government is as corrupt as any other Nigerian government.

On the issue of pay packages for government workers it should be obvious by now that these heavy packages and salaries is part of why a good chunk of budget goes to recurrent expenditure.
In a country where average wage is not more than fifty thousand a month, it is crazy how the people allow such a salary structure.
What ACTUALLY makes this kind of situation possible is because the people are disconnected from government. Since the money to pay for all these jumbo pay to government officials is from “our oil”, which is nobody’s money, this kind of structure goes unchallenged by the people who are more interested in the “rat race” of finding what to eat than coming out in mass to demand the right thing.

samG60

There is currently no court injunction against the forensic audit of Oando as Kolawole will like us to believe. If we are to go by his accounts that the minister asked the SEC DG verbally not to conduct an audit based on instructions from the President, just as the head of service verbally asked the President to shelve the idea of Maina recall, one will see a clear pattern with this administration of being careful not to leave evidence when they are about to commit an illegality, for plausible deniability. This goes all the way to GMB and let no one leave you in doubt, how some will still claim he’s a man of integrity and not corrupt. Baru and Kachikwu issue goes all the way to his table as most of those firms given those contracts are firms of the President’s friends and those who contributed to his campaign, The Maina issue goes all the way to his table, the grass cutter scandal is still there, in which they are still obstructing the course of justice because he’s a party man. The MTN bribery scandal goes all the way to the Villla. Then we have the Shiite massacre which he continues to justify on the basis that they are heretics. It is now they remember SEC DG has petition after he insisted on doing the right thing against party man, and another major contributor to his election, which is probably where a lot of the Oando’s funds went anyway with other forms of mismanagement. Without prejudice to Gwarzo’s culpability, this remains a clear obstruction of justice and it goes all the way to GMB’s desk.

Olu Fand

On Jonathan, Simon said “He did a million things wrong”. Gbam!!!

Falaye Adeyinka

With these kinds of shenanigans in the command height of our economy:Is some still wondering why this country is on the road to perdition? For this house call oando this is an existential threat and test!

Daniel Obior

Is there any wonder why we have a bloated recurrent expenditure that keep rising with every budget proposal, in this country? A disproportionately high portion of our annual budget goes into paying these government bureaucratic and political employees, in this type of most questionable manner as this case. We are spending far too much on salaries, allowances and spurious severance packages at every level, be it federal, state or local government, and the numerous and duplicated agencies and parastatals that mostly deliver next to nothing. Buhari’s government cannot be blamed for this madness which had evolved with time from the past. However, given his boasts, the expectation was that he would rein in these excesses to cut down recurrent costs in order to free money for capital and development projects. Unfortunately, recurrent expenditure under him has further increased, with him personally contributing to these crazy payments, with the Maina case, for example. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission and National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, which is charged with bringing order to this madness, is itself perpetually on holiday doing nothing but watching from the sidelines while for instance, members of the national assembly, plunder the country with their self allocated jumbo salaries and allowances. There is more to be gained by curtailing these corrupt practices in our public sector. Definitely much more than the Buhari spurious fight against corruption, which has turned out to be a huge joke.

William Norris

Bloated recurrent expenditure? You haven’t seen anything YET!

The National Assembly just passed a bill to incorporate the Peace Corps into government as another security cum social service outfit. All that’s needed now is for The Dullard of Daura to sign the bill and it becomes law. The last figure I’ve read somewhere puts Peace Corps strength at 230,000…..the total Federal payroll now is about 1 million.

I bought oando shares at N82 in 2009 today it is N5. No tangible dividend or bonus shares has been given instead they keep coming back to market for more money via public offers and rights issues. The share certificate as of today is worth not more than tissue paper. Why because of fraud and mismanagement by Wale tinubu and gang. At AGM they bribe shareholders leaders to silence. Who will fight for poor Nigerian shareholders. SEC DG has taken up the fight to stop this 419 going on at OANDO and buhari and his minister are suspending the DG because of fear of loosing tinubu support in 2019. Tomorrow they will claim they re fighting corruption. God dey

austin

Those OandO boys are the biggest corporate thieves walking the face of Africa.

FrNinja

You forget that Nigeria only gets a percentage since IOCs produce most of the oil. That 43 billion is more like 20 billion dollars in revenue to govt. For a nation of 180 million. Thats like 110 dollars per citizen.

William Norris

I know that. That’s why I always tell YOU the government doesn’t have the money to build infrastructure.

Even under Jonathan there was no money. The $200 billion you keep carping about is laughable and I told you so. Maybe you can now understand.

FrNinja

Goodlucks administration earned 40 billion a year from oil. 5 years 200 billion.

William Norris

It was NEVER enough, even the MASSIVE AMOUNTS earned in the Gowon era and Shagari era couldn’t do much because the economy was REGULATED AND DOMINATED BY GOVERNMENT.

PDP and Jonathan and Ngozi Iweala tried to change Nigeria and make it a more PRIVATE AND FREE MARKET ORIENTED economy.

Socialists like you objected, you elected APC that promised government can do everything and the results are here.

ENJOY THE CHANGE.

FrNinja

South Africas government invests over 30 billion dollars a year on infrastructure because they have revenue of 100 billion. Nigerian government barely spends 2 billion on infrastructure per year. Now you say the free market will fill in the gap. Have they done so on PPP roads? Bridges? Power stations?

Lagos – Ibadan was PPP but FGN had to recover it because nothing was going on. Second Niger Bridge is PPP yet no private investor is willing to put down the money. Fact is that Nigeria is facked. The leadership bankrupted the country like termites. Like bankrupt entities its going to take reorganization and a new injection of fresh donor capital for Nigeria or what becomes of it to rejoin the path of development.

William Norris

South Africa governments, both during Apartheid and today, had a dominant class and a sense of mission.

You once mentioned it was shameful Lagos has no light rail.

History Lesson –

A Yoruba man named Jakande started a Lagos Metro project and put a down payment or $40 million or something like that to a foreign company to start work.

A Fulani man named Buhari took over in an illegal coup to prevent Awolowo from winning the next elections….and the first thing he did was CANCEL the Lagos Metro project and forfeit the down payment.

You have no sense of what it means to be a REAL NATION.

Nigeria is a FAKE , a British Resource Colony masquerading as a nation State.

You’re simply IGNORANT.

FrNinja

Dominant class? South Africa has been run by a multicultural government with black African leaders of various ethnicities since 1994. That is 23 years. In that time frame they built the Gautrain an 80 km rail line linking Pretoria and Johannesburg. They built over 10 GW of power plants. They spent billions upgrading roads, airports for the World Cup. South Africa has spent something on the order of $200 billion on infrastructure since 1994.

Nigeria? Go and look at the state of roads, airports. Nothing has been achieved by Nigerian government since 1994 without direct external investment. The rail system for example is thanks to the Chinese. The new terminals at Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu is thanks to the Chinese. Left to Nigerian government contractors they would be using poor quality fittings to build rubbish and siphoning the funds out like the fake TAM of refineries or the used helicopters Goodluck ordered to fight Boko Haram.

South Africa is ranked 74 out of 190 countries in ease of doing business (Nigeria is ranked 169). Their stock exchange has gone from less than $100 billion in the 1990s to close to $1 trillion today. Nigeria? Its stock market is less than $30 billion.

Lets be real Nigeria has reached its economic nadir. The hangman’s noose awaits this fantastically corrupt and lawless entity called Nigeria. I bet the British never thought in their wildest imaginations that the Nigerians they handed over to in 1960 could inflict such damage and destruction. Who knew?

William Norris

You tend toward a superficial appreciation of nations. Try to look deeper. The White settlers still own South Africa.

Mr Ramaphosa is now the acceptable face of South African capitalism. He also represents the yawning gulf between the country’s tiny new black elite and its poor. South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world and the extreme inequality is a legacy of the hideous apartheid regime. Since the demise of institutionalised segregation in 1994, inequality in South Africa has risen sharply. In spite of several reforms targeting the poorest and fighting its apartheid heritage, race is still a key determinant of differences in income, education, job opportunities and wealth. The richest 10% of South Africans are largely white. This group earns more than 60% of national income and enjoys income levels comparable to Europeans, while the bottom 90%, almost all of whom are black, live among the poorest lives in Africa.
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Mandela was a worse Slave Trader than Oba Kosoko of Lagos. He simply partnered with the Whites to suppress his fellow Blacks…..who were deceived by propaganda.

Remniscient of APCs CHANGE propaganda

FrNinja

Last I checked South Africans both black and white are not living through 18 hour blackouts, their cities are not overrun with potholes and stinking sewers like Lagos, over 70% of their masses own their own homes, their government spends 30% of their budget on health and education. That is after 23 years of democracy. The ANC has been vilified for corruption but its nothing on the scale of Nigeria where oil fields are stolen, where government coffers are plundered at all levels.

William Norris

The bigger point is the CORRUPTION is NOT the CAUSE of poverty in either Nigeria or South Africa.

The Black Natives of both countries have been robbed of the wealth, both physical & PSYCHIC.

The PEOPLE of OLOIBIRI where crude oil was first extracted in Nigeria, are generally poor today because they were LEGALLY robbed of their resources without compensation…CORRUPTION has nothing to do with it.

What you call CORRUPT “stealing of oil fields” is completely LEGAL under the Petroleum Act.

Cyril Ramaphosa also legally obtained his shares in that gold mine and he was legally justified in ordering the massacre of his workers by police a few years ago.

It’s all LEGAL. That’s the point.

Full blooded Nigerian

60 X 2million X 365 = $43 BILLION…..MEGA MOOOONNNEEEEYYY OOOOOO!!!!!

Part of the calculation would go the IOCs that produced the oil. What Nigeria would earn is just a percentage of same and which is derived after deducting cost of production.

princegab

For your information, 60% of naija’s revenue goes to service debt next year. The rest won’t be enough for the salaries and allowances of our leaders. They will borrow for capital projects only to be siphoned via contracts.

William Norris

Dear Sir, I keep wondering WHERE Nigerians see all this Government money.

Where is the money? None of the budgets under Buhari have been more than $25 billion.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

princegab

You can not see the money but the results. Budget is a balanced sheet of proposed expenditures and the corresponding sources of revenue to finance it. So as the revenue accrued, the financing of the budget absolves it. Therefore you can not see the money (You see it only in figures). Then what you should see instead is the results of fulfilment of the budget. Salaries are paid, projects are executed, and the nation advances ie Majority are engaged, busy and comfortable. People are happy.
We are not see or getting results because of corruption. Our system allows our leaders to siphon treasury with impunity.

William Norris

The budget is a reasonable forecast of income and spending. Nigeria has NEVER had much money, never enough TO DO WHAT THE PEOPLE DEMAND of government.

“Our budget size is too small and that means we can only pay salaries in some cases and we don’t have money to deliver essential services.

“There simply isn’t enough money in government to do what government wants to do.
I am sure you will say that is because people are stealing or because you are wasting money, but I am saying even if you plug all the stealing and all the waste, the budget size is not big enough and that is because we are not paying enough in terms of taxes, or we are not collecting enough in terms of taxes.”
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You can keep blaming corruption; Nigeria has been fighting corruption since Jan 15 1966 and it should be clear by now that the battle is a false one.

The key reason for economic distress in Nigeria is LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY and a PREFERENCE for idleness, unearned income and rents. It’s not the government, it’s ALSO the people.

Productive people pay quantum taxes which increases government revenue and ultimately the budget.

Keep up the slogans against CORRUPTION, this government used it to get elected and they’re being proved to be foolish everyday. Their Finance Minister has clearly admitted it….CORRUPTION is not the problem.

Goodbye.

princegab

It is not “income and expenditure “, but “expenditure and income”that is why you borrow to make up and that is why it has to be reasonable. Budge went beyond forecast.

princegab

You read too much junk. Bad leadership is the bane of naija’s misery. We have more than enough with land alone

William Norris

Good Luck finding “good” leaders!

princegab

Thanks, cheers to our economic recovery. Good leaders are those who take government for what it’s truly is, ie “make majority of the people happy”

Country man

Dear Princegab,
Let me clarify you on what William Norris is saying and it’s pretty easy to understand when put in context with productive nations.
NIGERIA does not have enough money.
The budget is a paltry $20b or thereabout. Meanwhile a state in USA, SAY California for example, has a budget of over $180b. That’s about 9x Nigeria’s budget. A single state! Go figure.
Even if one kobo of our budget is not stolen, how much infrastructure can $20b do for Nigeria (that’s even assuming we use all our money on capital projects and don’t pay anybody salary from it)
We are approximately $1 trillion dollars in deficit when it comes to infrastructure. If we apply every kobo of the budget to capital projects, how long do you think it will take us to become a developed nation (of course we can’t even use all the budget on projects alone)

Nigeria needs to become more productive and the only way to do it is by empowering the people.
How people buy into the half truth that corruption is the biggest problem is amazing; as if there is a corrupt free land in the world.
Nigerians need to get productive and pay taxes, that way, the people will stay connected to government and not allow misuse or abuse of their hard earned resources.
The ONLY CORRUPTION that needs to be stopped immediately is the RENT SEEKING STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUTION that makes a nation with vast resources docile, in turn perpetuating a mentality that government can provide all the needs of the populace.

William Norris

You’re surely not Nigerian.

You need to get the fuck outta the Zoo and back to the planet of crazy people where you belong.

I’ll see you there when you return LOL

princegab

I felt the childishnes in his submission. Rome was not built in a day neither did it decay in a day. How did California got to where it is today?
I repeat, our land alone is enough for a start. And our problem is bad leadership not the people. Emphatically the leaders!!!

Country man

So I would like to know:- how do you propose to get the good leadership? Different leaders from North and South have ruled this nation at different times, how come we are still headed downhill?

princegab

Good leadership has no tribal marks. A good leader makes majority of his or her subjects happy via equity and justice .

Country man

Judging from your reply, you have no laid out plan on how to get the good leadership you believe will cure Nigeria’s problem. If I may ask if we can’t get a “good leader” or don’t have a clearly defined method to get him then what?

I will point out this fact to you:-
Nigeria will NEVER record serious development under the present structure. With over 70% of budget going to recurrent expenditure, HOW can any serious infrastructure be put in place?
Dangote refinery is costing about $12b. Building a mega electricity plant equally costs billions of dollars. Can the Nigerian government undertake ANY of these projects with their present budget even if one kobo is not looted? The answer is obvious.

However in a situation whereby production is the hands of the people, and pricing of petrol, electricity and co is not in the hands of government but determined by market forces, private investors can come in and invest which in turn has a ripple effect on the economy and the people, creating wealth and employment.
THIS IS NOT THEORY. It is the principle western nations have used to develop and something we can use that will work.

Waiting for some fantastic leader, who will come and share the petrol dollars equitably is just wishful thinking as our experience as a country over the years have shown

Finally leadership is a reflection of the people.
If the president, the governors, senators, ministers, local government chairmen, etc are all bad, they are just a reflection of what the average man will do if given the same position.
Without correcting the Nigerian system the RENT SEEKING mentality will never change

FrNinja

Truth is Nigeria is going to be buried in the cemetry of failed states. Small is always beautiful especially when governance is weak.

princegab

All you are talking is about bad leadership. If there is equity and justice, there will be progress. People are same all over the world, we are not bad people as we continue our search for good leadership.

William Norris

Thank you.

Simple and logical.

I have to learn from your style.

Thanks.

FrNinja

Forget US. Ghanas budget for 2018 is 13 billion dollars or around 4.2 trillion naira. Ghana has a population six times smaller. Nigeria is on the road to bankruptcy.

William Norris

So WHY do you keep insisting that government MUST build infrastructure an provide social services?

Since you acknowledge the budget is small, the LOGICAL thing would be to encourage privatization and deregulation. That is what PDP did for 16 years AND IT MOSTLY WORKED in the sectors where it was applied.

That is how your company MTN built telecoms infrastructure.

I think you’re getting it now. Bravo!

FrNinja

The budget is small because nigerian government has suceeded in creating a banana republic. The country is going the soviet way. Within a decade it will be bankrupt and restructured into smaller nations or a proper federation.

William Norris

Now you’re getting it….The Soviet Way was

Unitary government

Multi-tribal nation

Socialist economic structure…

That’s WHY Nigeria will continue to be a failure.

But Nigeria will NOT break up because the Anglo-Saxon owners will NEVER allow it to happen. You can take that to the bank.

Michael Kadiri SocioPolitical

God bless you

FrNinja

Budget is not a reasonable forecast. Nigeria promises more than it can deliver. It has never implemented more than 60% of any budget.

William Norris

Oando is the linchpin of Yoruba plans to establish their elite as permanent exploiters of the Niger Delta.

Oando in particular and CRUDE OIL & NATURAL GAS RESOURCES in general are the reasons the Yoruba have become staunch defenders and enablers of the Nigerian Unitary State. That is why they Lagos was the center of Occupy Nigeria in Jan 2012, insisting that PSF fuel subsidies must continue. That is why majority of the Yoruba voted for Buhari in Mar 2015.

Once a Fulani/Yoruba alliance was in office, then it was OK to withdraw the PSF subsidy and nearly double the price of fuel.

Surely Simon “our oil” Kolawale knows this.

Olu Fand

Yoruba people believe in probity accountability and transparency. Nigeria’s economy is best reflected in the southwest, where things work. The reason Yoruba voted for Buhari was to rein in the brigandage and the politics of brinkmanship pushing the country towards the precipice in previous administration. You seem to have forgotten that so quickly. I won’t blame Jonathan for that though. It was a collective Nigerian problem. If you do your homework properly William, you would have discovered that no other ethnic group is more persevering than the Yoruba. To label them as people thirsting after the Niger Delta oil is unfair. Yoruba are hardworking people.

William Norris

I always do my homework.

The Yoruba have a case of BRIGANDAGE, corruption and abuse of power that has been going on since 1999 in the person of Bola Tinubu. Yet they elected him twice and remain loyal to his political leadership.

Do you know how much Tinubu awarded himself as PENSION for being Governor for 8 years? Go and check the LAW he passed as Lagos Governor.

Yoruba against BRIGANDAGE? They twice elected a known COCAINE TRAFFICKER as Governor of Lagos State!

Please don’t make me LOL.

Uche

Stop posting fantasies on public forum. Saying that “Yoruba people believe in probity accountability and transparency’ is like the devil mouthing that he believes in humility, ob.Your people are the most corrupt and biggest looters of Nigerian federation. After the war your people controlled and dominated the economy of post-Civil War Nigeria and mismanaged all the the income-generating public agencies before the north wised up to the fact that poltical control can translate to economic power or benefit.

Where is Nigerian Airways, Nigerian National Shipping Lines, Ajoakuta Steel, Nigeria Railways, NITEL to mention just a few. Their counterparts in other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, China, UAE are generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and economic impart.

My brother let’s allow sleeping dog to lie!

FrNinja

The worst traits of the yoruba elite is opportunism and treachery two sides of the same coin called unreliability. The alliance with the feudal north was clear opportunism. The treachery of wale tinubu is well known from his dealings with volpi.

Uche

Thanks for debunking the falsehood from an ethnic revisionist!

okbaba

Where is KWOY??

William Norris

He’s using HATE SPEECH !!!

LOL 🤣😃😂

Ken

If Oando did not commit infractions why is anyone afraid of forensic audit?

Founded on January 22, 1995, THISDAY is published by THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LTD., 35 Creek Road Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria with offices in 36 states of Nigeria , the Federal Capital Territory and around the world. It is Nigeria's most authoritative news media available on all platforms for the political, business, professional and diplomatic elite and broader middle classes while serving as the meeting point of new ideas, culture and technology for the aspirationals and millennials. The newspaper is a public trust dedicated to the pursuit of truth and reason covering a range of issues from breaking news to politics, business, the markets, the arts, sports and community to the crossroads of people and society.